A Terrible fate

Part 15

The frost had set in by the time the next letter from the prince arrived. This time on a ship with small treasures and trinkets. Silk gowns, soft woolen pillows, necklaces bearing the prince's emblems, books, quills, and blank paper bound together in softened and dyed leather.

He was trying to buy my affection, hoping that it would get me to him faster.

There were things from my mother's culture as well. Beaded and feather headdresses, hats, and sashes edge with pearls and little bells. Silks dyed bright red, like the highland lilies my mother brought from his homelands.

The things he sent were so similar to my mothers they brought a longing up within me. I wanted to be with them, to be close with them. I had been grieving but I had been put so far away from them because of how faint and fragile I had become at anything that reminded me of them.

"Just how much has he sent?" Lionel looked bewildered at the sheer amount of beautifully wrapped packages and baskets that kept flowing into the room.

"The whole ship was just gifts." The maids were whispering back and forth around me, to each other and him.

"Look at all these silks..."

"And pearls! Did they empty the treasury for this?"

"Look at these feathers, dyed and stitched to perfection!"

"And the flowers! He sent so many dried flowers."

Lionel was the only one who wasn't looking around at the gifts, he was focused on me. Watching my every little reaction, ready to take me into a different room to rest or get away from the sheer amount of what was going on around us if he had to.

"Princess?"

He knelt before me, hands gently taking mine. I had been staring at a book filled with pressed and dried flowers from my mother. It was something the prince had sent along, a gift to him from my mother and now from him to me. There were little scribbles and doodles all over every page around the faded flowers. Every word was my mother's.

"Princess, do you need to take a break?"

I stared at him, and for the first time, I think, I made eye contact. He seemed startled by it, flicking back a bit before steeling himself again.

"Princess? I know this is a lot so if you need to step away for a moment then it's alright."

We stared at each other silently. Gold looking into steel blue. I nearly spoke. I nearly told him I wanted to see my mothers and father. I wanted to go to their bedrooms and gather all their things and just sleep amongst the clothes, books, jewelry, pillows, and toys my family had treasured. I almost spoke to tell him I wanted to get all their things and then sleep in my parent's bed as if I was a child again hiding from a storm or a bad dream.

"Sir Lionel? A letter came for you and the princess on the ship." one of my father's stewards stood in the doorway. I didn't recognize him, but he had the crest of the father's staff on his lapel. One of my Uncles, one of the several I had who were not my blood relatives, had served as my father's primary Steward until he died with them.

"I'll read it in a moment."

"It's marked as urgent Sir."

Lionel sighed, heavily. "Bring it here then."

He stepped away from me, taking both letters from the steward as the maids swarmed me, holding up the new dresses and jewelry that had been sent along.

They carried flurries of questions with them, asking me which I wanted to try on and which one I wanted to wear first what event I thought I should wear to, and what I thought of the style, the color, the beading, the cut, and the cloth.

Lionel seemed perturbed, brows furrowing and nose pinching at the contents of the letter.

The steward has weaved around him, gently threading through the throng of presents and people that had filled the small sitting room of my current chambers to reach me. He kneeled, on both knees, before me offering me a small letter on the silver lettering he held.

"From His Majesty the Prince of Reobeth Kingdom of you little miss," he spoke softer than Lionel, staying statue still as he stared up at me, a soft smile on his face.

The letter was not stamped with his royal seal, as all his others were, it didn't even have a finished seal on it. The wax across the letter's opening was old and ripped where it had been broken before in a previous reading. There was indeed where a flower or small plant would have fit.

It was my father's seal. The wax browned with age and travel, but the original golden yellow hue still shone through in some places. I recognized the envelope as well. It was a gray color, with streaks of pale blue running through its fibers.